Privatizing Pa. Lottery doesn't add up

From the outset, Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed privatization of the state lottery was ill-fated.

And for good reason: It was a bad idea.

It’s bad public policy. It’s bad for state taxpayers. It’s bad for the senior citizens who depend on lottery funds to pay for transportation, meals, prescription drugs and property tax and rent rebates.

But now we learn the governor’s quixotic quest — guided by ideology more than practicality — hasn’t been bad for everyone.

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Consultants have hit the jackpot. And they didn’t even have to schlep themselves down to the corner Sheetz to buy a scratch-off.

Consultants — lawyers, lobbyists and other pilot fish who feed off of the state government — have charged the state more than $3.4 million for services that seem to consist of them telling the governor what he wanted to hear.

If any of these consultants were legal advisers, well, maybe they should go back to advertising on bus benches. The governor attempted to privatize the lottery without legislative approval, essentially trying to hand a $3 billion-a-year operation to a British company, the lone bidder. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane wisely killed the deal, an effort that apparently did not involve much heavy legal lifting.

The deal seems dead.

The bid, from the British lottery management firm Camelot Global Services, expired Tuesday — and with it, apparently, Gov. Corbett’s hopes to hand a public agency over to a for-profit organization.

But still, the consultants get paid — a good gig if you can get it.

It seems like a waste of money that could otherwise benefit senior citizens.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale feels the same way. He has ordered his staff to review the payments made to consultants to make sure, in his words, “that we can account for every single penny.”

In a news release, Mr. DePasquale said, “Funds from the Pennsylvania Lottery are supposed to help older Pennsylvanians with prescriptions, transportation, home-delivered meals and property tax and rent rebates, not to fatten the coffers of law firms and private consultants over a Lottery privatization plan contract that may never see the light of day.”

Now, there are those who would frame this as a political maneuver.

Mr. DePasquale is a Democrat, and Gov. Corbett, a Republican, is up for re-election next year.

And considering that the governor is about as popular as, oh, Congress or head lice these days, it might look like DePasquale is kicking the governor while he’s down.

There might be an element of truth to that. But the whole truth is that Mr. DePasquale is doing the job he was elected to do, keeping an eye on how the state spends its money. And in this case, it’s hard to think of a more ridiculous waste of money than handing millions over to consultants on a proposal that is going nowhere.

And it gets worse. Mr. DePasquale said payments to consultants could top $4.3 million.